The Investigation Of Knowledge, Attitude And Pratice Of Aids Among The Out-of-school Young In One Country

Since the first AIDS patient was reported in the United States in 1981, AIDS has spread rapidly around the world. It had become one serious diseases which threatened the survival of human. The main cause of AIDS epidemic in Henan province was the paid blood supply, so the HIV-infected and AIDS patients clustered in some of the natural villages. After taking strict measurements to block the paid blood supply, blood transmission has been controlled effectively. At present, the sex transmission has become the main route of HIV transmission gradually. Therefore, an important task of AIDS prevention and control is to influence and interfere with personal behavior of residents directly or indirectly.The data from United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) showed that 50% of new HIV infections were younger than 24 years old in the world. The focus crowd of AIDS prevention and treatment was young people, especially out-of-school young people. They are low literacy, poor disease awareness, lack of knowledge of the necessary precautions because of leaving school prematurely. Generally speaking, their social status and economic level were lower, so they are susceptible to take the high-risk behavior of HIV. Therefore, if there was no good prevention and control work, the spread would be possible to expand from the center of concentrated HIV and AIDS village in Henan province. To control the spread of AIDS, it is necessary to set up the first line of defense in the adjacent villages. At present, there was some research about AIDS-related knowledge among out-of-school youth in urban areas. But, there were no investigations about AIDS prevention and treatment for out-of-school young people in the non-AIDS town from one high-incidence country. Studies on out-of-school young people of AIDS knowledge and related factors close to the AIDS village was carried out, the aims of this survey were to learn the AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior of out-of-school youth and to explore the response to AIDS health education model of young people, and to provide basal theory for further health education and behavioral intervention.Methods:Questionnaire survey was carried out from April to December in 2008. The village close to high-incidence of AIDS area was chosen. 222 out-of-school young with the age of 14 ~ 28 were investigated the AIDS knowledge, attitudes and behavior.Results:1. Information about AIDS: 86.0% of the participants had never seen AIDS patients. 89.2% of those believed there were no AIDS patients close to their village.2. AIDS knowledge, attitudes:(1) Basic knowledge: 82.4% of youth knew that AIDS was infectious diseases. 47.5% thought that AIDS couldn't be cured. 80.2% knew that AIDS could be prevented.(2) Route of transmission: the awareness rate of three routes of transmission (sexual, maternal and child blood) in out-of-school young people surveyed were 77.9%, 80.2%, 70.7%. 29.3% of youth knew that HIV would not be infected by mosquito bites. 61.3% of youth knew that it would not be infected by coughing and sneezing. 79.7% thought that it would not be transmitted by embracing, shaking hands with AIDS patients.(3) Preventive measurements: 44.1% of them knew that using condoms could prevent AIDS, 55.0% knew that apparently healthy people might be a carrier of HIV, 41.4% knew the people suffering from sexually transmitted diseases were easier to infect HIV than general population.(4) The ways to access knowledge: 68.2% of people accessed knowledge of AIDS prevention and control mainly through television, newspapers and magazines.(5) The attitude to AIDS patients: 81.9% and 79.8% respectively of the respondents indicated that if relatives and friends had AIDS, they would take the initiative to help them. The others would try to avoid meeting them or cutting off the relation with them.3. The impact on young people: 55.0% youth thought that the neighboring village had impact on their lives because of AIDS. The most important influence was the psychological impact of fear and limited social interaction.4. Sexual behavior and attitudes: 56.9% of unmarried out-of-school young people had sexual partners, among whom 12.3% had more than two sexual partners; 10.3% of the first marriage with extra-marital sexual partners. 53.4% of the unmarried endorsed or did not oppose the sexual partner, 37.0% marriage agreed with or had no objection to extra-marital sexual partners.5. Condom use: The rates of never using condoms in single and first marriage (extramarital) sexual behavior of young people were 33.3% and 15.4% respectively. Only 46.9% (single) and 36.8 (first marriage) thought the purpose of wearingcondoms was to prevent AIDS.6. The demand for health knowledge: Out-of-school youth hoped to learn the knowledge by the method of expert lectures or publicity material. 62.9% of people thought what they most need learning were the content of the basic knowledge of AIDS and sex, the healthy lifestyle and behavior.Conclusion:(1) The awareness level of AIDS prevalence and knowledge in out-of-school young people was low. Some youth showed discrimination and hostility to the neighboring AIDS village. The incidence rate of extramarital sex behavior and and bad sex behavior was high. The education about AIDS knowledge should be strengthened among the out-of-school young in rural areas. (2) AIDS epidemic had greater impact on the daily lives of young people. The psychology of young people should be paid more attention while carrying out the health education of AIDS to them.